Shamanic Healing: Batteries Not Included

Author:Cathy Towle

A good part of my work is setting us humans straight with the spirit world, including our Earth Mother. This can take the form of connecting clients to their loved ones on the other side, cleansing spaces and land, clearing a persons energy field and body of spirit intrusions, clearing the ancestral line of spirit interference, and honoring the spirit beings and ancestors. Spirits and humansÖwe have bonds that extend throughout time. It is vital to both of us that we be in communication and heal the broken ways for both living and non. It is part of a larger crisis our planet is facing.

There is a natural way of handling relationship with this part of our spiritual nature, which has been forgotten over time. It used to be that people partook in ritual, were tended to by Shamanís who understood the natural process of attachments, soul loss and guidance from beyond. They knew that spirit attachment is a natural occurrence that resolves itself as a person heals naturally. That speaking to our loved ones in spirit is a necessary and important healing act. When one is depressed, or experiences loss or illness, a hole in the aura opens up. Spirits with similar issues, sometimes misguided, will think they are helping, or just donít know what else to do and attach to you. Sometimes it is more intentional, but that is rare. As you naturally heal, the hole closes up and the spirit goes away. Sometimes though, when the wound is too deep or multi layered, the spirit clings on and prevents healing. Especially when soul loss has occurred. This is when the Shaman comes in and does their work, closing up the aura and letting you heal and move on. Although not everyone is a shaman, the healing process works better when we are engaged in the process. Recognizing the entire natural world, and honoring our beloved dead through our own personal rituals, as well as community ritual, keeps us whole.

Not attending to this way of natural attraction/interaction with the spirit realm has led people in our modern world to experience a lot of problems. A lot of messes have stored up for both our ancestors and we the living. The living can amend this, the beloved dead and other spirits cannot. We have the energetics and the tools to heal the past and the future by working on these issues. It is freeing, important work that demands the full attention of both our hearts and minds. And the follow through of work that leads us to a deeper understanding of our lives and purpose.

Spirit interference is a wake-up call and an opportunity. It is not a passive event. We are all too used to being passively healed. We take medication and something happens. We see the doc and are given instructions, we are operated on and things get better. Healing is not a passive act. It is to make one whole. Wholeness requires effort on our part, and, a willingness to be restored to our natural state. The shaman and the client are partners, one helping the other to restore balance to the community. If one member of the community is ill, the community feels it and is changed. We are interrelated. Connected. Bonded. Therefore, more responsible than we thought.

For the healing to be complete we must work on our connection to the parts of our spirit that were out of alignment and damaged. We need to sing ourselves back to health. Tell our own stories. Time after time, clients are reluctant to make the healing real by interacting with the returned parts, or creating personal ritual that connects us to the healing process. They are skeptical of the spirit messages and information. They want the Shaman to take care of it all. Although we do a great job, it is not in our abilities to make the healing take. That is the responsibility of the person being healed. Admitting our weaknesses and taking steps to strengthen ourselves is required. Otherwise the conditions can and most likely do recreate.

IMG_1531I have puzzled on this, and realize that it is something that is just so out of our modern culture. Clients seem so connected in session. Yet the healing needs to be repeated because we lack experience to embody what we are learning. Without regular time set aside for connection to spirit, we get run over by our phones and too busy lives. Itís not intentional, we are allowing this because we have forgotten how to be whole. If it isnít automatic, we just donít do it. That is what needs to change.

Another factor is fear. We donít want to know that the spirit world is real, that it requires our attention. It scares us. It tells us that things are not so much under our illusion of control. It stretches our imagining of reality till it almost breaks and when it snaps back it is bigger than before. It tells us the truthÖabout most things. And opens us up to what we donít want to see. We are so attracted to busyness because we are running. But sooner or later it catches up with us. It then causes havoc in our lives.

We are born containers for spirit, and the earth, our mother, is the container for that luscious, life giving, creative connection. When we are connected, it is not scary. It is amazing. The earth and her spirits teach us all that we need to know. We ignore her and her wisdom at our peril. Our disengagement is why we are in such an ecological mess. And why we are not rising up and fighting back. It all starts with us. Reconnecting to ourselves and the ways of spirit. And we need to start with our relationship to nature, which nurtures all that we are. We need to take action today to make the call. Invite the spirit world to help you be whole. To guide you on your path. And Illumine the way as we walk out of darkness into the light which holds it. We donít need to be fixed. We need to be restored. And from that we can care. About everything that matters. I know we can do it together. Here is to holding that intention.

About the author:
Cathy Towle is an intuitive, shamanic healer and sacred activist. She teaches people how to heal and re-imagine their lives working in harmony with the ancestors, guiding spirits and nature. Her consultative work at the United Nations supports indigenous perspective on international issues, especially around Climate Change and Eco-Spirituality. Tending to the land spirits and restoring right relations with the natural world in NYC, Cathy works from her home in Brooklyn, NY. You can read her spirituality column at chelseanow.com or visit her blog at cathytowle.com.